The sky around Angel Nebula at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
Angel Nebula is a reflection nebula in Monoceros, 2,890 light-years away
Angel Nebula (vdB 67, NGC 2170, LBN 994, Ced 63) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Monoceros, 2,890 light-years away. spans 2′ of sky, about 1.7 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in February.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
Angel Nebula is vdB 67 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is BD-06 1415, B, magnitude 10.7. He rated it very bright in brightness and moderately blue in color.
Finding Angel Nebula from Saiph
Angel Nebula lies 5.9° northeast of Saiph, the magnitude 2.1 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
Angel Nebula is highest in the evening in February
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole southern hemisphere and north to about 84°N.
Angel Nebula is 2,890 light-years away
The light seen from Angel Nebula tonight left it about 2,890 years ago. It ranks 110 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (887 pc).
